Will Tommy Heinsohn Ever Find Love After Walter McCarty?
By Greg Cassoli
Who on this Boston Celtics team can bring out the Tommy Heinsohn love like Walker McCarty?
One of the great pleasures of watching the Boston Celtics consistently is being able to enjoy their broadcast team. Everyone involved is good, but the stars of the show are Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn, the play-by-play man and color commentator respectively. The duo has been together since 1981, long enough to have witnessed several of the Celtics’ ascensions to dominance and subsequent falls from grace.
Their dynamic is straightforward enough. Gorman is a level-headed observer. He gives credit where credit is due, and describes the game in simple but intelligent terms. Heinsohn plays his foil. He’s prone to bouts of shouting, constantly critical of referees, and unapologetically devoted to the belief that the Celtics need to “run more,” regardless of how often Boston is getting out on the break. He walks a fine line of endearing and blatantly biased, but he walks it well. Listening to Heinsohn while he’s in full furor is a delight.
Heinsohn has taken on a reduced role in recent years. He’s getting older, and no longer travels to road games. That’s reasonable for a man who is about to turn eighty-two, and while his involvement has lessened, his efficacy remains strong. He still doles out “Tommy Points” for hustle plays, still lambastes referees for calls that are usually correct, and still functions as the fulcrum around which the rest of the broadcast pivots.There is one thing missing from Heinsohn’s shtick, however. In fact, it’s been missing for many years- unconditional love.
In 1997, the Celtics traded for a young, lanky forward named Walter McCarty. His game was never particularly graceful, but he made up for it with effort. McCarty was a spindly bundle of hard-working arms, legs, and corner threes, and Celtics fans loved him for it, none more than Heinsohn himself.
Hustle, above all else, seems to stir Heinsohn’s emotions, and McCarty had that in spades. When he gave his all on defense, with limbs flying about, Heinsohn loved it. If he knocked down a clutch shot, that love grew stronger, and when his feelings became too much to contain, Heinsohn would simply shout “I LOVE WALTAH.” It was the perfect confluence of eccentricity, admiration, and a Boston accent, and it became something of a catch phrase during McCarty’s seven and a half year run in green.
Heinsohn hasn’t expressed a similar infatuation with a single player since McCarty was traded to Phoenix in 2005, and he may never do so. Love is a complex emotion, and Heinsohn may be unable to move on while McCarty remains on the bench as an assistant coach. This year’s Celtics are undeniably likeable though, and as the team continues its return to relevance, the good vibes might just be enough to push Heinsohn to commit to one of the squad’s more endearing players.
McCarty was a rotation player, but he was never really a primary piece. That likely rules out the team’s starters. Jae Crowder loses out the most from that group. He’s got the right blend of defensive work ethic and big shot confidence, two of Heinsohn’s favorite qualities. Ultimately, though, he’s too meaningful to have the same underdog type feel that seemed to push Heinsohn’s love of McCarty over the top.
That means our best chances at matchmaking probably reside somewhere on the bench. Who that will include remains to be seen, but for this exercise we will consider everyone in camp that isn’t already destined to play in Maine or abroad as an option. Kelly Olynyk, Tyler Zeller, Gerald Green, Ben Bentil, and James Young are all out due to lack of defensive intensity. We’ll pull Jalen Brown and Jordan Mickey off the list for unfamiliarity, and Terry Rozier and Demetrius Jackson get cut for being undersized guards living in the shadows of Isaiah Thomas.
That leaves us with Marcus Smart, R.J. Hunter, and Jonas Jerebko. All three are real options. Smart is a tenacious defender with enough confidence to put himself in the middle of big moments. Hunter has a similar herky-jerky type lankiness to McCarty that hasn’t been replicated on the Celtics roster in years. He’s not an incredible defender, but he works hard on that end, and that is really all Heinsohn seems to want. Of the three, Jerebko’s game is probably the closest to what McCarty offered. He doesn’t do all that much aside from knock in open threes and play surprisingly decent defense, but those things will get you “Tommy Points,” and enough will get you at least some level of adoration from Heinsohn.
Ultimately, my money is on Smart. The potential for limited playing time tied to Hunter scares me off. He might not even make the team. Jerebko’s similarities to McCarty in style of play are intriguing, but his hair is unloveable, and Smart is a fearless gym rat, just the kind of player Heinsohn finds most appealing.
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Maybe we’ll hear some “I love Mahcus” exclamations this year. It has a nice ring to it. The wiser bet is on that line staying in retirement though. People don’t often get two cracks at the kind of love we’re talking about here. Heinsohn will be glad to know he experienced it even once.